While the recording plays, what you wrote or typed during the time it was recorded is also highlighted in sync with the audio like a magically-appearing instant replay perfect for studying or reviewing concepts. Combined with the ability to customize ink colors by HEX code, choose a pen style, highlight, and turn any transparent PNG image into a sticker, GoodNotes has, in my opinion, the right combination of style and substance.īesides the stylish pen and formatting options, GoodNotes is packed full of useful and productive features such as audio recording, so you can record a meeting or lecture while taking notes, and replay it later or break it into smaller clips. Yes, I'm one of those #aesthetic nerds who use textured paper templates to make my fake digital notebook feel more like the real thing. I personally use GoodNotes as my main iPad note-taking app. Used to be a one-time purchase, now a subscription model Imitates a physical paper notebook look and feel The most powerful AI content tools at your fingertipsįree $6.99 one-time payment for the Pro version, plus $2.99/month for AI Assistant The most accurate handwriting-to-text resultsīring your schedule and daily to-dos together with your notes Saving time with layers to export only what you needĮverything related to your project in one place, plus excellent collaboration toolsįree up to 100 notes paid plans from $12.50/month Smart folders for automatic note organizationįully cross-platform sync and deep Microsoft 365 integration The best iPad note-taking apps at a glanceĬustomizable ink, colors, and templates for fun and functional notesįree up to 3 notebooks paid plans from $9.99/year

And if you're looking for the best free note-taking app for iPad, you're in luck: all of these apps are either completely free or have a free version. With these criteria in mind, and after weeks of testing apps with my usual workflow of creative brainstorming and client meetings, these are the eight best iPad note-taking apps. Today's top note-taking apps offer audio recordings, media imports, and handwriting recognition as standard, but the best note apps also harness the power of AI. Great apps go even further with collaboration tools and additional formats. Whether you want to archive, print, or email your notes, you'll probably need to save them as a PDF. You need to be able to easily access your notes-and preferably edit and create them-from all your devices.Įxporting and sharing options. For most of us, our iPad isn't our main work device. These apps offer easy ways to find your notes, such as folder (or 'notebook') organization, categories, tags, and more. The benefit of digital storage can also be its downfall: nearly unlimited storage can turn you into a packrat. For those who prefer to type, apps should also offer full keyboard support. Good note-taking apps make full use of Apple Pencil with pressure sensitivity and tilt support to make writing on the screen feel like paper.

In my opinion, these are the five features that the best notes app for iPad needs to have:Īpple Pencil support. I'm sure you agree our notes now are more essential to daily life than scribbles about photosynthesis, right? Like you, I've been taking notes since elementary school. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

Free digital notebook goodnotes